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> Going forward, it will be much easier and more enjoyable to implement new CSS properties. Which makes it easier for folks in the open source community to cont

by Touche 10y ago

> Going forward, it will be much easier and more enjoyable to implement new CSS properties. Which makes it easier for folks in the open source community to contribute. Which makes new things come out faster. I had never really thought of Servo in these terms before, but it makes a lot of sense. Mozilla, being a nonprofit, can't compete with Google / Apple / Microsoft doing things their way. They inherently have a greater need for the free-time contributions. Given that, if you can make contributions easier and "fun", by choosing a more modern language and toolchain, it could theoretically be a competitive advantage. Thinking about it like this, the recent Rust marketing articles make a lot of sense. Rust marketing matters because the more Rust developers there are, the more potential Servo (and thus Firefox) developers there are. Whether it pans out or not remains to be seen, but as a way to attempt to hack a problem, I really like it.

wmf 10y ago
Mozilla is really just another software company owned by a nonprofit. They have hundreds of millions in revenue and have been "profitable" in many/all years. But they are definitely much smaller than Google/Apple/MS and can't benefit from ecosystem lock-in effects.
- Touche 10y ago
  Everything's comparative, of course. Mozilla isn't a solo dev's weekend project, but it's also not a top 10 most valuable company in the world, like all of its competitors are.
  - addicted 10y ago
    Also, Mozilla, the way it is setup, does not have the same incentives as its competitors do, all of which are publicly traded firms.
- hackuser 10y ago
  > Mozilla is really just another software company owned by a nonprofit It depends on how one defines "just another software company", but I don't agree with that characterization: Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent. Much more of the same here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/ I don't see Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or other software companies aggressively, creatively pursuing those goals (and achieving them). If Mozilla was just another software company, would there even be an open web today?
pcwalton 10y ago
I really love seeing new folks get on board with Servo itself, but there's something else that's equally important: the Cargo ecosystem. Servo is built with Cargo and incorporates a lot of code from the Rust community. Likewise, we try to make our standalone Servo pieces available as Cargo packages on crates.io when we can. We take code from the broader Rust community and give back in turn. In this way, even folks who have no intention of hacking on Servo can effectively end up contributing to the project. And, by the same token, we also in effect contribute to lots of projects in the Rust community.
Manishearth 10y ago
Note that most of the recent Rust "marketing" articles have nothing to do with Mozilla and weren't a coordinated effort (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13325196 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13325196), it just sort of happened. This specific article is by Mozilla from the Developer Relations team, so you might call it marketing, but there hasn't been such an article from Mozilla for quite a while now. But yeah, I agree, Rust will make it easier to contribute to Firefox IMO. We have a lot of contributors on Servo.

by Touche 10y ago

wmf 10y ago

Mozilla is really just another software company owned by a nonprofit. They have hundreds of millions in revenue and have been "profitable" in many/all years. But they are definitely much smaller than Google/Apple/MS and can't benefit from ecosystem lock-in effects.

Touche 10y ago
Everything's comparative, of course. Mozilla isn't a solo dev's weekend project, but it's also not a top 10 most valuable company in the world, like all of its competitors are.
- addicted 10y ago
  Also, Mozilla, the way it is setup, does not have the same incentives as its competitors do, all of which are publicly traded firms.
hackuser 10y ago
> Mozilla is really just another software company owned by a nonprofit It depends on how one defines "just another software company", but I don't agree with that characterization: Our mission is to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. An Internet that truly puts people first, where individuals can shape their own experience and are empowered, safe and independent. Much more of the same here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/ I don't see Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or other software companies aggressively, creatively pursuing those goals (and achieving them). If Mozilla was just another software company, would there even be an open web today?

pcwalton 10y ago

I really love seeing new folks get on board with Servo itself, but there's something else that's equally important: the Cargo ecosystem. Servo is built with Cargo and incorporates a lot of code from the Rust community. Likewise, we try to make our standalone Servo pieces available as Cargo packages on crates.io when we can. We take code from the broader Rust community and give back in turn. In this way, even folks who have no intention of hacking on Servo can effectively end up contributing to the project. And, by the same token, we also in effect contribute to lots of projects in the Rust community.

Manishearth 10y ago

Note that most of the recent Rust "marketing" articles have nothing to do with Mozilla and weren't a coordinated effort (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13325196 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13325196), it just sort of happened. This specific article is by Mozilla from the Developer Relations team, so you might call it marketing, but there hasn't been such an article from Mozilla for quite a while now. But yeah, I agree, Rust will make it easier to contribute to Firefox IMO. We have a lot of contributors on Servo.